Voices of Cuba: Life Under a Dictatorship – Part 1 {PODCAST}

Would you pay $12/hour for supervised/censured internet if your monthly salary was $25?

What if you could be thrown in jail for hanging out with tourists without permission?

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to live underneath a dictatorship?

As of 2015, Cuba still remains under the world’s longest ruling dictatorship, and although things look to change, many hardships persist. With so much controversy between Cuba and my own country (USA), I made it a goal while planning my trip to Cuba that I was going to talk to as many Cubans as possible about the history between our two countries. I wanted to learn as much as I could about how Cuba is, and why Cuba is,and I figured there was no better way to try to understand La Revolución Cubana (The Cuban Revolution) than straight from the mouth of a Cubano.

Uncle Sam catching a big, right hook from Fidel

So on a warm April night in Santa Clara, Cuba, I sat down to briefly interview a Cuban man whom I’d met the day before. What resulted was a lengthy, passionate, and eye-opening discussion in which my friend voiced not only his frustration with the system, but the hardships of the average Cuban citizen as they continue to battle discriminations that exist only in theory in most of the world.

Don’t get me wrong – Cuba is an amazing country, without a doubt one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been. It’s rich with culture, incredibly photogenic, and filled with beautiful people. But the reality of visiting Cuba as foreigner is completely different than the reality of living there as a national.

This is Cuba from an insider’s perspective.

This is the Cuba that the Cuban government has done their best to cover up from the rest of the world.

This is Cuba as told by a proud, but exasperated Cuban who risked imprisonment to tell me his version.

I hope you will take advantage of listening & following along with the transcript below, not only to improve your Spanish abilities, but also to improve your understanding of a very misunderstood country.

Note: I don’t “know” Spanish, I’m learning Spanish and always will be. This means I make errors when I speak (and plenty of them at that). These spoken errors will be identified in the transcript with a strikethrough line and the correct word will be immediately highlighted in bold. (i.e. Hola, yo estoysoy Ford). If I left a word out that I shouldn’t have, it will be included in (parenthesis). If there are simply question marks in the middle of a sentence, it’s because I couldn’t, even after listening to it 20 times, figure out what he said (lol). The Cuban accent is hard, so don’t feel discouraged if you get lost! Much thanks to Giovanna for the help.

– Hey, and welcome to another podcast of Where’s the Gringo? I’m the gringo, Ford, and we’re here in Cuba. Finally! Finally I’m doing a podcast in Cuba. It is my first podcast after arriving to this marvelous country. I have been traveling in Cuba now for a little more than 2 weeks, and I’ve loved the culture, the country, the people, the music, everything is very, very rich, very different, and I’m going to write various articles about Cuba, and maybe I’m going to do more podcasts. I’m here with my friend, who is a Cuban, he was born in Cuba, it’s his motherland. But he wants to participate anonymously for various reasons. I’m going to ask him some questions so that you all can see how Cuba is, so that you all can learn about certain political issues, and other things, but also so that you all can hear the Cuban accent that I believe is very interesting, very different than the accents that I’m accustomed to, per say. But lets starts, my friend, the first question I have is, “What does the revolution mean to you?

– It’s unique, it’s unique in the world. I’m very proud to be Cuban. With all of its differences, with all of its different ways of being, but we are very patriotic, very rooted in our history and for that I feel very proud for being Cuban, wherever I stand. The Cuban Revolution means many things for me. Precisely one of the things that it means is that I was born with the revolution, after the revolution. I wasn’t born before it. That means, I was born with the changes, the social changes. As a kid I grew up forming this ideal within me, with this image, with those changes, I was together with the changes. And I was taking it in, you see? From my grandparents to my parents, and from my parents to me. Therefore I will continue carrying it on from my perspective with my point of view.

– But for me the Cuban Revolution means patriotism, it means to feel proud of my country, it means that I have reason to feel proud of saying “I’m Cuban!” I belong to the Cuban Revolution, it doesn’t happen like this in other countries, that barely know the history of their own flag. We don’t just know it, I know it well. And nevertheless, the Cuban Revolution isn’t more than…for me, personally, it means a lot, despite all the things that don’t work. But it’s not the fault of the Cuban Revolution’s history, it’s the fault of the people who created the revolution.

– Yes, since I arrived in Cuba, I’ve noticed that that are flags everywhere and a lot of nationalism. It seems to me that almost all of the Cubans whom I speak with are very proud, and are very educated, they know a lot, not just about the history of their country, of Cuba, but of other countries as well. And like you said, you all know the history of your flag…

– I’m sure that we can talk about these questions for along time, maybe I could make a podcast for each question, so, tell me the short version about the benefits that are implemented.

– Look, the socialist system of Cuba, aims to carry out, certain benefits that currently aren’t fulfilled like they should be. It started one way, but has ended up another. And the those benefits have been diminishing. That’s the word. First, they tried and then it started diminishing.

– They aim for a revolutionary principle. They implement health, free health care, they implement mass education. In other words, they have brought education to the most remote corners. They have schooling on Mount Pico Turquino. Even if there is one kid, there will be a teacher there. And these are the things that truthfully they have achieved. They have been achieved because of many sacrifices, but sacrifices of those who make them, it’s not a sacrifice of the government. The government almost doesn’t sacrifice, the teacher sacrifices, the person there sacrifices. So it’s one thing to try to make it work, and another to see the reality of the system.

– Yes. So I know…and besides there have been a lot of accomplishments. But those accomplishments aren’t…let’s say, before they was an idealism, for which people dreamed and lived. It was like “Fidelista, Fidelista!” (name of Fidel supporter) you see? Back then, people aimed for, they dreamt for, they fought for that ideal, at all costs. Even to whatever price was necessary. Now there’s more ways of thinking, I mean, the thoughts have changed. So the accomplishments haven’t been maintained as much as one would have wanted them to be. Like for example, the healthcare, the education, they always talk about the same thing, healthcare and education. But all the achievements in a society aren’t just supplemented with healthcare & education, right?

– There are other spheres that need to be developed: economy, personal satisfaction, culture. There are others, there are more, development, infrastructure, there are more things. Well, the Cuban Revolution hopes to achieve. We always dream every day “Well, the next year we’re going to think…we’re going to aspire that this sector has improved. ” But what happens is the contrary, this sector has underdeveloped, this sector doesn’t develop at all, the dissatisfaction remains. So it wouldn’t be correct to talk about achievements, the Cuban Revolution has had achievements, what they aim to do now is maintain or improve what they’ve already done. But it is very difficult, it gets out of their hands. So we can’t talk about achievements, but instead about goals.

– The hospitals are collapsing, the doctors are leaving the country. You don’t have what you need. You have to buy doctors, you have to buy them off if you want them to attend to you well, these aren’t achievements, this is what has degraded. Sport itself in Cuba has degraded. Sports in Cuba are going downhill with no brakes, education as well. So we can’t speak much about achievements because in the end the achievements aren’t…when you achieve something, maintaining it is the hardest part. To maintain it precisely in these times, in times in which those who must maintain the goals have a very difficult time, they have a lot of need. They aren’t supported, they aren’t given what they need to keep them up. Therefore, accomplishments of the Cuban Revolution? No. Those who run this country can tell you about the accomplishments better. But I’m not talking about disguised achievements, I’m talking about achievements with their feet on the ground, those practical achievements that when I go in the street ??? they benefit me. Therefore I don’t have any reason to talk about truthfully established accomplishments because I don’t see them! The achievements here are degrading. We are going farther & farther backwards all the time.

– Yes, farther backwards every time. At the end of every year, I see more inflation. When we pass the first of January of another year, all of us Cubans say, “Shit, but this year is worse!” Excuse the word, but it’s a word that is property of Cubans.

– It was well designed. But many things were incorporated, that later degraded the system, that made people lose their faith, that weren’t…they were expecting Cubans to sustain the system out of their own willingness. You can’t act out of someone else’s will, you have to act out of your own will, you have de be sure, yourself, to say “What I am doing is correct, what I’m doing is something that’s well thought-out.” And not that the they make you like a robot, that you repeat or do what someone else tells you to do. And your action doesn’t make sense, it has no sense. But you do it like that because you live from the system. So then, the people who run the system are to blame.

– They make the system, so they…it’s like the story of “One Thousand and One Nights.” It will keep being like this and no one will change it. But this subject is really…umm…the people that make the system and the government’s form. This is the old way of thinking. The world goes at a certain speed, in a sense, in a direction, but Cuba goes in another. So if we want to develop it, if we want satisfaction, we have to incorporate ourselves into the world, the world isn’t going to incorporate into Cuba. And that isn’t the thought process of those who run the system. They want to do things according to their will, according to their thought, but it can’t be like this, because the entire world lives apart from Cuba, Cuba is an island. But you aren’t isolated. Cuba is part of a continent, part of a world. How are you going to do business with the South, business with the North, business with the East, with the West? We have to hold ourselves accountable to the norm.

– So there you can see that we are behind, that’s where we’re clashing, that’s where we’re under-developing. Precisely it’s because of our way of thinking, of perceiving things, of trying to acquire things, but they can’t be achieved like that, because we think we are the greatest, but we aren’t the greatest. We are only a little, brave island, very proud of our history, but we have to adapt to the international standard, keeping in mind the rules, and from there go forward with a different way of thinking, not going forward thinking small, like an island, no no no.

– We have to act according to our surroundings on an international level, and then include ourselves into this movement, include ourselves to that speed and adapt to the new ways of life. So the system, imagine, always manipulates everything, always does things their way, and it’s the worst thing that’s happening, and because of that there are consequences, and dissatisfaction amongst people. Maybe if this interview was with another person who worked in the government with lots of benefits, their attitude and answer would be different.

– But that’s not my case, I’m a atypical Cuba, I live like a king in Cuba. That is how they say it, I’m an atypical Cuban. I don’t have needs like many Cubans have, I was a Cuban with internet 4 years ago, I have a cell phone, I have a lot of things, but…but like Fidel Castro as well. He was the son of overseers of a farm, he didn’t have needs.

– That wasn’t my case, my crib of gold was forged later when I was 26 years old. But Fidel was born in a crib of gold, and you ask yourself, “Why did he need to do what he did?” Because we are all like this. So I’m a reflection of the Cuban reality. I don’t pass for a typical Cuban, but I live it every day when I go to the corner, when I talk with my friends, when I go out into the street, when I see my family. And I try to help, and try to live my live harmoniously. I don’t know if I answered your question. I don’t know if…

– No no, that is exactly what I wanted! Because of of that I decided to do this interview with you, when we started talking yesterday I could notice that you’re very passionate about all of this, and you really start to talk and you answer a lot of questions that I didn’t even ask you.

– But that brings us to the next question that you have already partially answered, let’s say, which is “What are the challenges that the socialist system of Cuba faces? Referring to the qualify of life of the population, opportunities to improve their standards of life, freedom of political expression. The official income, it seems to me is about 10 to 20 dollars per month, according to the majority of Cubans who tell me. Another thing: the freedom to leave the country, it’s not that easy. This is a very complicated question, it’s like 5 questions in one question.

– Let’s go in order, if you want we can go through them in order, let’s see. Your question is, “What are the challenges that the socialist system faces?”

– The first challenges that the socialist system faces is to maintain the achieved. That is its first challenge. It’s so big of a challenge…realize that the magnitude of this challenge is so big that it turns into fear and it scares the government, so much that they don’t invest money into improving a peasant’s house after a cyclone. The prefer to invest money in cameras, to train young people to be policemen that belong to the entities of the Ministry of the Interior. In other words, that is their first challenge and the biggest: to maintain what they have already achieved at whatever cost necessary.

– You can notice this when you go into the street. The common Cuban that thinks for himself notices it, but not a mannequin that is trained, that goes out into the street and appears to be a zombie. No no, a well-grounded Cuban who is aware.

– The second challenge is to achieve that the youth and the people, where everything comes from, are satisfied. This is a very big challenge that they still haven’t attained: satisfy the Cuban. The Cuban needs satisfaction. What is satisfaction for a Cuban? To have food everyday. To simply not need to think about what I’m going to eat when I arrive to my house, or what I’m going to do to get food. To have money, to have the average finances that allows you to buy what you need, do you understand me? So that turns into a challenge that needs to be achieved in Cuba, the satisfaction of the Cuban, it’s something that they haven’t achieved and I think that it will take many years to do so.

– To satisfy the Cuban in his needs, but we are talking about basic needs. I’m not talking about satisfying the idealogical needs of a Cuban, like for example: having freedom of speech. That is a need of another group of Cubans, because we are trained from birth not to involve ourselves in politics. And politics are in everything, ever since we are born we’re taught to think “Oh, I don’t like politics. It’s repulsive!” Because they teach us when we are little. We don’t even know that United Nationals Universal Declaration of Humans Rights. In Cuba when someone speaks about human rights, it’s like it makes Cubans scared. They say, “You’re talking about something that I don’t like…”

– It is a challenge for the Cuban government, that they finally achieve freedom of speech, that is a huge challenge. But that is something that they can’t achieve so easily, because everything is very well designed, everything is very well planned, very well thought out. It’s like a psychologist, it’s like if you put a psychologist in a church and he becomes religious, that psychologist is capable of attracting people to the church. Because he uses psychology and you don’t have everything thought out and you become religious. You have to have a strong mind, so that’s what happens in Cuba….

I think that’s all for today. Thanks for listening, and I invite you all to follow us in the website WheresTheGringo.com where, amongst other things, you can find a transcript in English and Spanish of today’s entire podcast. And also we’re going to publish the second and third part of this interview. So thanks for everything and see you later!

END OF TRANSCRIPT

So what did you think of the podcast?

Did you learn anything about Cuba that you didn’t know?

Is the Cuban accent hard for you to understand?

How do you see various human rights issues in Cuba?

Was this podcast helpful for you in learning Spanish? Do you have any suggestions for me about ways that I could help you learn Spanish?

Let me know in the comments below, and stay tuned for part 2 and 3 coming soon!

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Who is the Gringo?

I'm Ford - welcome to my blog! I'm pretty serious about traveling the entire world, but for the next few years I'll be roadtripping the Pan-American Highway between the USA & Argentina. I'm on a mission to break stereotypes, learn Spanish fluently, and show that America is a continent, not a country. This blog documents my adventures, and the beautiful people, cultures, & places encountered along the way. Click here for more about me.